POW camp Grafenwohr
The Grafenwoehr POW camp was the largest POW camp in Bavaria at the beginning of the First World War . It was built in 1914 on the Grafenwöhr military training area . At the end of 1914, 21,501 prisoners of war (French and Russians) and 1,657 civilian prisoners of war were interned there, 99 of whom were still children.
The camp consisted of three spatially separate areas: the Stallager , the hut camp and the civilian prisoners-company . The stable camp consisted of converted horse stables, in which the prisoners initially slept on sacks of straw, then from mid-1915 on to wooden beds. In the spring of 1916, the stable warehouse was cleared to create quarters for the training of German recruits; the French prisoners still held there were housed in the hut camp south of the military training area. In addition to the three main camps, there was the Flügelsburg labor camp , in which around 200 French prisoners were quartered for cutting peat.
In the beginning, the prisoners were mainly occupied with building and expanding the camp, digging drainage ditches and doing clearing work. From the spring of 1915, prisoners were then assigned to a greater extent to work in Alsatian mines, in the Bavarian lignite industry and in agriculture. The number of prisoners was reduced to 6,466 by April 1, 1918. On this date, the Grafenwoehr POW camp was relocated to Bayreuth .
In 1915 the camp was inspected by a Danish-Russian commission and a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC committee members reported on their observations:
“To Grafenwoehr z. B. A good part sleeps on the straw that is poured out on the floor. The lice plague the prisoners so much that as a result of the scratching they are covered with ulcers and festering wounds. The lack of underwear, the lack of clothes to change, the lack of shoes and, above all, the lack of coats make the greatest number of prisoners suffer from the cold. The German authorities distributed clothes, but in insufficient numbers; the wooden shoes with which they replaced the confiscated boots do not protect our people against the wet or the cold ... As for food, it is about the same in all camps, and complaints about it are general; it is inadequate and unhealthy everywhere. "
About 800 prisoners died of their war injuries or illness. They were buried in their own prison cemetery on the edge of the military training area. In 1925 the bones of the French who died were exhumed and transferred to France.
At the beginning, the commander of the military training area, Major General Oskar Menzel, was also the head of the POW camp. From January 27, 1915, the camp had its own commandant, Major General Ferdinand Hocheder .
literature
- Gerhard Müller: The Grafenwöhr prisoner of war camp - at the beginning of the First World War the largest prison camp in Bavaria . In: Negotiations of the historical association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg . tape 128 , 1988, pp. 265-274 ( online [PDF]).
Archival material
- Bavarian Main State Archives : Signature BayHStA, Staudinger Collection 21548 (pictures)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Müller 1988, p. 271.
- ↑ Grafenwöhr prisoner of war camp (military training area). In: archivportal. Retrieved March 28, 2018 .